Word.ws English Dictionary

marfa

/ˈmɑɹfə/

marfa noun: a percussion instrument thought to have originated in Africa.

Noun

marfa (plural marfas)

  1. A percussion instrument thought to have originated in Africa
  2. A form of Hyderabadi music inspired by Afro-Arab music that typically uses such instruments

Proper noun capitalized: Marfa

Marfa

  1. A transliteration of the Russian or Ukrainian female given name Марфа (Marfa).
  2. A city, the county seat of Presidio County, in far West Texas.

Forms of marfa

pluralmarfas

Origin of marfa

Borrowed from Urdu مرفع (marfa’), ultimately from Yemeni Arabic مرفع (marfa’, “kettledrum”).

Transliteration of Russian and Ukrainian Ма́рфа (Márfa). Doublet of Martha. The town is named after a character in Jules Verne's novel Michael Strogoff.

Words formed from marfa

Phrases with marfa

Questions about marfa

What does marfa mean?
Marfa means a percussion instrument thought to have originated in Africa.
What part of speech is marfa?
Marfa can be a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce marfa?
Marfa is pronounced /ˈmɑɹfə/.
What is the plural of marfa?
The plural of marfa is marfas.

Words near marfa in the dictionary

  1. Maretts
  2. Mareva injunction
  3. Mareva injunctions
  4. Marez
  5. Marezes
  6. marfa
  7. Marfa front
  8. Marfa fronts
  9. Marfa light
  10. Marfa lights
  11. Marfak

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: marfa (page history and authors); Marfa (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “marfa.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/marfa. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.